| Objective: To investigate the effect of enriched environment (EE) on the hippocampus neuroinflammation and reactive astrocytes of vascular dementia (VaD) rats. Methods: Totally, 36 adult male SD rats were randomly divided into sham operation group, model group and model+EE group with 12 rats in each group. 2-vessel Occlusion (2-VO) surgery was used to make the rat model of VaD. After 4 weeks of environmental intervention, Morris water maze experiment, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase deoxyuridine triphosphate nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and double immunofluorescence labeling were used to detect the changes of learning and memory ability, the hippocampus neuron apoptosis, interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and glial fibers in acidic protein (GFAP) and lipocalin-2 (LCN2) in reactive astrocytes of VaD rats. Results: The model+EE group performed better in escape latency, the time spent in target quadrant and the number of crossing platform than the model group (P<0.05), but still not as good as the sham group (P<0.05). The TUNEL positive cells, IL-1β, GFAP and LCN2 in the model group were significantly increased as compared with those in the rest two groups (P<0.05). The expression levels of TUNEL positive cells, IL-1β and LCN2 in the sham group were significantly lower than those in the model+EE group (P<0.05), except for GFAP. Conclusion: EE can reduce hippocampus neuroinflammation and the activation of reactive astrocytes, accompanied by improved cognitive function in VaD rats. |
